In Samsung’s defense, the Galaxy Fold does pack more components. In addition to the extra screen, bigger battery, wireless charging coil and dual AKG speakers, this device also has a total of six cameras to ensure all three sides — front and back when folded plus the tablet side when opened — are covered.

You have a main triple set consisting of a 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra-wide shooter, a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto camera with optical stabilization, and a 12MP dual-pixel wide camera also with optical stabilization plus variable aperture — f/1.5 and f/2.4. Then there’s a dual selfie camera set on the tablet screen side: you’ll be using the 10MP dual-pixel f/2.2 wide camera, which is assisted by an 8MP f/1.9 RGB depth camera. Sadly, this part eats up some of the screen space at the top right corner, but it’s otherwise a near-all-screen tablet. Last but not least, when folded, you still have a 10MP dual-pixel f/2.2 front camera.

As announced at the earlier developer conference, Samsung has been working closely with Google to make sure users get the most out of this new mobile form factor. With App Continuity, this Android 9 device lets you switch between both screens while staying in the same app, as shown on stage using Google Maps and Netflix. Similarly, when an app notification pops up on the front display, simply unfold to launch the app on the larger screen — though you may have to unlock the device first using the fingerprint reader on the frame.

We also saw a slick demo of Multi-Active Window. The demonstrator had WhatsApp, Chrome and YouTube running side by side (Galaxy Fold will be shipped with YouTube Premium, by the way), and he was able to enlarge one of those apps by simply dragging it into the larger window. It was indeed a good demo, but as always, we shall see how the device fares in real life — it’s all down to app compatibility at the end of the day.

So far, the Galaxy Fold seems to be a well-polished package with good intentions. The specs check out, the screen is apparently durable, the software seems slick, and there’s no shortage of cameras no matter which way you hold the device. The only problem here is the price: at almost $2,000, the Galaxy Fold is clearly not for everyone, but you have to give Samsung credit for wholeheartedly pushing the envelope. And of course, the competitors — which in turn become Samsung Display’s potential clients — are undoubtedly figuring out how to follow suit, which is exactly what this slowing mobile market needs right now.

LG G8 ThinQ and 5G V50 ThinQ

LG is one of the few phone makers that still reserves its flagship announcements for MWC. This year, reports indicate that the company will pull the wraps off of the G8 ThinQ — a device that will be the answer to Samsung’s shiny new Galaxy S10. While the S10 houses three cameras around back, the G8 ThinQ is said to only have two, but should be powered by one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processors that are both AI- and 5G-ready.

The G8 ThinQ will also offer some kind of gesture control. Thanks to a tease from LG, we know that the phone will have some way of interacting with it, without actually touching the device. Details are scarce, but this hands-free operation is sure to get plenty of stage time. LG has also teased the G8 ThinQ’s “Crystal Sound OLED” display, the same tech we’ve seen in Sony’s TVs. The technology vibrates the screen to produce sound, a process LG claims improves audio quality with more volume and enhanced clarity.

Like a lot of other companies, LG will likely show off a 5G phone in Spain too. Based on early revelations, we know the V50 ThinQ is probably the company’s first 5G model and it looks similar to its predecessor (the V40). But that’s about all we know about it at this point, other than Sprint apparently plans to sell it in the US. With 5G looming large over all of MWC this year, the full details on the V50 ThinQ should be revealed as a key part of LG’s press event on Sunday.

All of the Sony phones

Sony can be a little reserved when it comes to big news at MWC, but this year could be much different. Rumors suggest the company is literally working on something big: multiple phones with 21:9 displays. Of course, this means the devices — likely the 5.9-inch Xperia 10 and 6.5-inch 10 Plus — will be much taller in your hand as a tradeoff for what we expect to be an improved cinematic experience for all your movies and TV shows. While the display news might be exciting if you like to stream Netflix on the go, it sounds like those phones will also sport midrange specs. More specifically, the smaller Xperia 10 will run on a Snapdragon 630 while the larger will be powered by a Snapdragon 660.

We’re crossing our fingers for news of a more-premium device from Sony next week. If that happens, it will likely be the 6.5-inch triple-camera XZ4. Come on, Sony, don’t let us down.

Microsoft and HoloLens 2

When invites went out for a Microsoft event at MWC, it caught many people by surprise. The company may be out of the smartphone game, but its products still play a big role in the mobile world. Next week’s news will likely revolve around a new HoloLens headset which will be the successor to the original, announced in 2015. Thanks to the event invite and a teaser from HoloLens creator Alex Kipman, it’s a safe bet Microsoft will be focused on augmented reality in Barcelona.

There aren’t a lot of details about the so-called HoloLens 2 headset just yet. However, a source familiar with the matter told Engadget that the device would be powered by Qualcomm’s XR1 platform. That technology is said to deliver “high quality” AR and VR experiences with the promise of directional audio, 3D elements and 4K video at 60 frames per second.

Foldable phones

Motorola may not be ready to discuss its foldable phone yet, but other companies certainly have their affairs in order. We already know what Samsung’s device looks like, at least in its current form, and LG has plans to make a folding phone of its own. At this point, it’s unclear if LG will divulge anything at MWC or show off a device. Xiaomi also teased a foldable design a while back, and its fold-back edges make it one of the more unique items we’ve seen thus far. But again, there’s no clear indication we’ll see it on stage next week.

China’s Oppo also hasn’t been shy about its foldable phone plans, and it went so far as to promise an early 2019 reveal. We’ve reached that time and if Oppo wants to make some noise in Barcelona, the official announcement of a folding handset would certainly do that. The only foldable phone we know for sure we’ll be seeing during the show is from Huawei, and that’s because the company wanted to start the hype machine by plastering the device all over the invite to its press event. However, that’s really all we know about the thing: that it will most likely be on display at MWC.

Nokia 9’s five rear cameras

By now you’ve likely seen the leaked images of HMD’s Nokia 9, complete with its cluster of five rear cameras. Rumors have been circulating for months at this point, but with no official announcement, our curiosity is running wild trying to figure out how that many cameras will function as a single unit or how exactly HMD plans to revive PureView.

It won’t be all about the Nokia 9 for HMD though. Based on the company’s track record, we’re likely to see some mid- to low-range phones as well. Perhaps we’ll see a follow-up to last year’s Android Go handset and a feature phone or two.

The best of the rest

There will be a lot of 5G talk at MWC as we hurtle toward next-gen connectivity becoming a reality. OnePlus is one phone maker who will likely be focusing more on 5G than new phones, since the 6T debuted late last year. Blockchain is on the docket for HTC as the company is primed to chat up its Exodus phone. Hopefully, that means we’ll get the chance to see one in person. Motorola has already tipped its hand on the new G7 lineup, but the company could discuss its RAZR-inspired foldable phone at MWC.

Huawei has had its hands full with security concerns, accusations and legal troubles over the past few months. Even after being formally charged with allegedly violating sanctions, fraud and theft of trade secrets in the US, the company hasn’t slowed down in terms of both news and new products. In addition to the foldable phone that’s on tap for next week, we know that Huawei will be discussing 5G as well. It’s unclear if that foldable phone will also be its first 5G handset, but we’re sure to find out soon enough. We do know that Huawei’s next proper flagship line, the P30 series, won’t debut at MWC. Instead, the company will unveil that news in Paris on March 26th.

If we just stuck to what’s expected, MWC would be a week’s worth of exciting news. But as it goes with nearly every major event, there’s sure to be many more announcements that haven’t been ruined by leaks or reports just yet. It could get weird. In fact, it probably will get very weird at some point. When you mix tapas, Spanish wine and a tech trade show, anything could happen.

]]>https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/what-to-expect-at-mwc-2019/feed/0Blockchain is solid, in that there is no liquidityhttps://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/blockchain-is-solid-in-that-there-is-no-liquidity/
https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/blockchain-is-solid-in-that-there-is-no-liquidity/#respondThu, 21 Feb 2019 16:25:17 +0000https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/blockchain-is-solid-in-that-there-is-no-liquidity/

The quality of a financial market is driven by liquidity. Companies want to list on the NYSE, because that’s where the most financial investors in the world are located, and the thicker the market for investors, the better the valuations for companies. The NYSE has “problems” though — its closed most hours of the week, for instance, because humans are lazy, and it has a bunch of rules on what can be listed and how.

So blockchain! Blockchain solves this liquidity problem by allowing traders to operate 24/7, sell assets immediately, yada yada yada. All the stuff that’s been talked about ad nauseam the past few years.

I wanted us to get a better feel for the real liquidity of blockchain technology, and so we had Extra Crunch contributor Galen Moore crunch the numbers. And, my god, these markets are about as liquid as my dining room table.

In his analysis of security token offerings, Moore finds that liquidity can be measured in dollars a day. As in, sometimes there is someone, somewhere that wants to trade a token, but it isn’t all that often! For BCAP and SPICE, there are days that had no liquidity at all despite millions in purported market value.

It’s straight out of my market microstructures textbook that I used to read before going to bed. When you have lightly-traded assets, you want to build a market that concentrates trades in that asset into tight windows, in order to increase the thickness of the market. These securitized tokens would do better with an hour of trading per week when more buys and sells could be matched together, rather than the current model of no one trading ever.

We talk a lot about the user story from a utility token perspective, but we also need to talk about the user story from an investor perspective. Markets are sort of the classic case of network effects. Blockchain technologies are great and I am a “believer” for whatever that means, but if you are going to run a market, there has to be a crowd that shows up — or there is no market.

Congressmen with rural stops want unprofitable routes to continue serving stations that essentially have no passengers

Unions are opposed to removing dining cars on trains that operate over short distances

Private rail owners don’t want more frequent service because it makes scheduling freight trains more complicated

Amtrak’s entire long-distance fleet has aged and needs to be replaced, but no one can agree on what configuration new train sets should have

Even so, Congress wants Amtrak to become more financially solvent (!)

And so you get to this fact:

Amtrak’s long-distance routes carried about 4.5 million riders in fiscal 2018, down slightly from the previous year. Amtrak reported an adjusted operating loss of $543 million on those routes in 2018, more than offsetting the $524 million in earnings coming from its operations on the Northeast Corridor.

Long distance passengers are just 15% of Amtrak’s total, but hold the company hostage.

We have an infrastructure obsession over here these days, but it’s not just planning and construction that matters — how we operate infrastructure is even more crucial for preserving the quality of the user experience. As Amtrak makes clear, the kinds of sprawling debates that plague the planning process come up just as often in operations.

Quality news from around the web

Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Google Policy “Reorg”

Dave McCabe at Axios got the scoop yesterday that Google is re-organizing its policy wing. The details are vague and don’t portend huge changes to its model. One interesting note is that the shop will be called “Government Affairs and Public Policy” instead of just “Public Policy,” indicating that Google clearly sees a need to lobby more forcefully on its behalf than it has in the past. The company will also bolster regional teams, which seems critical in emerging markets like India and Indonesia, where massive elections this year threaten to rapidly change the policy environment for large foreign tech companies.

Two internets is increasingly the reality at the protocol level too

We’ve talked a lot about the splitting of the internet into internets due to content firewalls and barriers to competition in the tech sectors in countries like China, India, and elsewhere. Another dynamic is that the very protocols that run the internet are now diverging between these countries. The FT noted that emerging markets have made almost no efforts to migrate to IPv6, the modern Internet Protocol system, from IPv4. With more and more devices coming online and the IP address space exhausted, that split on the core protocol of the internet complicates keeping the world on one platform.

During his tour across Southeast Asia this week, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been publicizing his intentions to invest billions in the region. And we’re not talking about chump change here — just yesterday during his visit to India, MBS stated Saudi Arabia was looking to invest at least $100 billion in the country over the next two years, which came just days after Saudi Arabia reportedly signed agreements to pour around $20 billion into Pakistan.

Countries are torn on how to transition to a cashless future

Pieces from Quartz and the New York Times highlighted a developing story of how countries are approaching the swift decline in cash. As regions move closer to cashless societies, policymakers are voicing concerns over equity, data treatment, and the underbanked. Such negative externalities have been well-documented in countries like Sweden, where cash is rarely used, infrequently printed and is no longer accepted in most places.

To avoid the same unintended consequences, the UK will publish a roadmap for handling falling cash usage next month, while policies banning cashless stores have already been passed or discussed in major US cities and states. While other countries like South Korea, India and China have advocated for cashless payments, the UK and the US are hoping to create a more gradual, manageable and predictable transition. ~ Written by Arman Tabatabai

JVP’s new $220 million fund leverages its frontier tech and cyber pedigree

Yesterday, Israel-based Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) announced it had closed on $220 million in committed capital for its eighth fund, which will focus on investing in early and mid-stage companies in frontier tech sectors like AI, cybersecurity, and computer vision. JVP has a long track record of investing in these categories and working with governments. The firm has worked with the Israeli government to help run several leading cybersecurity accelerators, and recently partnered with New York City to help launch the city’s $100 million Cyber NYC program focused on establishing a dominant cybersecurity ecosystem. Israel has long been a source of new innovative cyber solutions while New York’s central financial institutions have been some of the largest customers and stakeholders in cybersecurity. Given its established and expanding presence in these markets, JVP seems well-positioned to source deals and grow companies that fit under the focus of its new fund. ~ Written by Arman Tabatabai

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree, who we just interviewed and will share more soon

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to danny@techcrunch.com.

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

A company using advanced technologies to grow and harvest mealworms (larval beetles) at scale is on track to become one of the venture capital industry’s oddest billion dollar investments.

Ÿnsect, (pronounced ‘insect”) is a Paris-based producer of insect protein that has just closed on $125 million as the company looks to expand into North America selling bug-based nutrients to fish farms, animal farms, and the everyday harvesters of vegetables.

The company isn’t worth $1 billion… yet. But that’s clearly the goal as it bulks up for a global expansion effort.

According to the company’s chief executive Antoine Hubert, a former agronomist turned bug farm maven, the company grew out of efforts to promote sustainability in the food system at foods and companies across France.

“We thought we could make a bigger impact by developing not only education but production,” in the realm of novel proteins for agriculture, Hubert says.

Since agriculture is a leading producer of carbon dioxide and methane emissions that contribute to global warming, then any steps that are taken to reduce those emissions by making supply chains and production more efficient would be good for the environment.

“The food system has an impact on greenhouse gas. We decided to develop a proper technology to produce large volumes of proteins at competitive prices,” Hubert says.

The company borrows automation and sensing technologies from areas as diverse as automotive manufacturing and data center heating ventilation and cooling and applies it to the cultivation of mealworms. The company actually has 25 patents on the technologies it has deployed and is on track to book more than $70 million in revenue this year.

The company said that it raised this $125 million (€110m) Series C round to scale up production. Ÿnsect intends to build the world’s biggest insect farm in Amiens Metropole, Northern France and will begin expanding its presence in the North American market.

The deal, led by Astanor Ventures with participation from Bpifrance, Talis Capital, Idinvest Partners, Finasucre and Compagnie du Bois Sauvage is the largest ag tech deal to date outside of North America and should plant a flag for the role of insect cultivation in the animal feedstock and fertilizer market, which is a combined global market of $800 billion.

That’s good news for competitors like Protix, AgriProtein, EnviroFlight and Beta Hatch, which are all building insect kingdoms of their own with eyes on the same, massive, global market. In fact, before Ÿnsect’s big haul, Protix held the title of the venture-backed bug business with the most cash. The company raised $50 million in financing back in 2017 to expand its insect empire.

Ÿnsect’s bug protein has already found its way into pet and plant food, fish food for aquaculture and other applications, but as demand for sources of high quality proteins continues to grow alongside a rising global population, the company sees one of its largest opportunities in fish and shellfish farming.

“By offering an insect protein alternative to traditional animal and fish-based feed sources, Ÿnsect can help offset the growing competition for ocean fish stock required to feed two billion more people by 2050, while alleviating fish, water and soil depletion, as well as agriculture’s staggering 25% share of global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Hubert. “Our goal is simply to give insects back their natural place in the food chain.”

It was this ability for Ÿnsect to slot itself into the global food chain that attracted Talis Capital as an investor, according to the firm’s co-founder Matus Maar.

“With the global population expected to grow to nine billion by 2050, current acquaculture and animal feeding practices are unsustainable.” Mar said in a statement. “Ÿnsect taps into a huge, yet highly inefficient global market by offering a premium and – above all – sustainable insect-derived product through a fully automated, AI-enabled production process.”

What 5G exactly is though remains mostly a mystery. Is it new bandwidth? Edge computing? Decentralized cloud processing technology? Autonomous vehicles? Something else? I get pitched a dozen stories a day about the “5G revolution” and no one can tell me exactly what’s in it for me other than long presentations in hotel ballrooms about bandwidth (ironically, often without any cell reception).

So imagine my surprise this morning when Trump tweeted that U.S. companies need to work harder and faster on building out the tech behind 5G, but also in the process called for …. 6G technology.

I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on………

I want to just say that no, 6G isn’t a thing. I have only received one PR pitch for 6G in the last few months, which said: “Waveguide over copper runs at millimeter frequencies(about30 GHz to 1 THz) and is synergistic with 5G/6G wireless. A type of vectoring is applied to effective separate the many modes that can propagate within a telephone cable.” No, not a thing.

But it could be a thing. Maybe the government is secretly pioneering the next generation of the next generation of telecom technology. Or maybe, just maybe, our president, branding expert that he is, realized that if you are going to sell 5G, you might as well inflate the number to 6G and really get people’s taste buds salivating.

No comment from cleaning supplies company Seventh Generation, but if I were them, I’d be getting worried.

Google today announced an update to its Cloud Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech APIs that introduces a few new features that should be especially interesting to enterprise users, as well as improved language support and a price cut.

Most of these updates focus on the Speech-to-Text product, but Cloud Text-to-Speech is getting a major update with 31 new WaveNet and 24 new standard voices. The service now also supports seven new languages: Danish, Portuguese/Portugal, Russian, Polish, Slovakian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian Bokmål. These are all in beta right now and extend the list of supported languages to 21 total.

The service now also features the ability to optimize audio playback for specific devices. That sounds like a minor thing, but it allows you to tell a call center application for interactive voice responses and another application for use with a headset.

As for Cloud Speech-to-Text, this update focuses on making the service more usable in situations where developers have to support users on multiple channels — think a phone conference. For this, the company introduced multi-channel recognition as a beta last year and now, this feature is generally available.

Similarly, Google’s premium AI models for video and enhanced phones launched into beta last year with the promise of fewer transcription errors than Google’s other model which mostly focuses on short queries and voice commands. This model, too, is now generally available.

In addition to the new features, Google also decided to cut the price for using the Speech-to-Text service. The company decided to cut the prices of the standard and premium video model for transcribing videos for those who opt in to Google’s data logging program by 33 percent. By opting in, you allow Google to use your data to help train Google’s models. The company promises that only a limited number of employees will have access to the data and that it will solely use it to train and improve its products, but chances are not everybody is going to feel comfortable opting in to this, even if it means there’s a discount.

Thankfully, the regular premium video model is now also 25 percent cheaper without having to log in to Google’s data logging. Like before, the first 60 minutes are still free.

When I interviewed Parrot founder and CEO Henri Seydoux at TechCrunch Disrupt back in 2016, he surprised everyone when he said he was working on a new kind of T-shirt — nobody knew for sure whether he was joking or not. But the connected T-shirt is real, and it’s called wearTRBL.

While the project started as a Parrot subsidiary, the company was spun off in July 2018. Seydoux is still credited as co-founder and Olivier Levy acts as co-founder and CEO. wearTRBL expects to launch its first product in a few months.

The team has been working on a flexible E Ink display that you can seamlessly embed into a T-shirt. Thanks to a mobile app and Bluetooth Low Energy, you can change the image on the display and make a statement.

You can store up to 20 images on the display and the battery should last around 4 days. That doesn’t mean you’re supposed to wear your T-shirt for 4 days straight because that would be incredibly gross. But you can remove the display and put it into another T-shirt, sweatshirt or accessory.

If you’re thinking about this product with the expectations of a consumer electronics enthusiast, you’re going to be disappointed. This is a fashion product, a way to express yourself with your T-shirt and show some of your personality using what you wear.

The original idea behind this T-shirt started after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015. Many people wanted to express themselves by replacing their online profile pictures with drawings. People wanted to write “Je Suis Charlie” on giant banners.

wearTRBL wants to create a community and a curated library of pictures. You’ll be able to browse a collection of designs and download it to your T-shirt. You’ll also be able to attract followers and broadcast content to other users.

The startup eventually wants to become a brand of iconic clothing items that are all compatible with the E Ink display. It’s an ambitious bet, but Seydoux wasn’t joking when he said “I’m working on a T-shirt that you’ve never seen before.”

Bobby Misner knows people don’t like him, and he is more than OK with it — he’s still raking in views.

The 23-year-old YouTuber went viral in late 2018 when his video “LIFE of a BILLIONAIRE’S SON” became the subject of popular reaction vloggers. It’s something between a travel vlog and a movie trailer, flaunting a rich kid’s glamorous, privileged life across yachts on tropical beaches and helipads in major cities. Hate him as much as you want, but the video has more than 4.6 million views and Bobby now has 188,000 subscribers.

Here’s the TL;DR so you don’t have to watch all eight minutes and 31 seconds of millennial flexing: Bobby was born into a financially comfortably family in Australia, but it all changed when he was 15, because his father sold his company for $300 million. From there, he bounced between schools, partied with celebrities, and lived the life of the nouveau riche.

“I’ve always hated that how just because someone is born into a family of wealth, people automatically label them as a spoiled brat,” Bobby said in the video, bizarrely lit so that he appeared like a disembodied head. “Yes, my dad has a private jet. And I love flying it. Yes, my dad has a mansion and cars, and I love making videos with them.”

It’s difficult to take anyone seriously when they list “fast cars and beautiful girls” as their major interests. Bobby comes off as incredibly out of touch throughout the video — he even pulls the classic, “I’m not rich, my parents are!” while bragging about attending a party with Kate Moss.

“But I never pretended that those things were something I owned,” Bobby’s floating head continued in the video. “And I recognize that my dad is the one who worked hard for them.”

Can someone really be so oblivious, though? During a FaceTime call with Mashable, Bobby clarified that it was mostly an act to catch views.

“Basically I see ‘Bobby’ as a character,” the real Bobby said, calling from London. He bounces between cities, and is currently looking to set up a base in Los Angeles. “My name on paper is Robert. Realistically, no one’s portraying themselves, everyone pretends they’re on holiday the whole time, doing these nice things. If I’m gonna do that, I might as well create a character who … lives in this dream world.”

‘I feel like a lot of people think that from that video, I’m living this ridiculously lavish lifestyle but I’m actually quite a simple boy.’

He has a point. In a twisted way, it’s refreshing to see a YouTuber who doesn’t rely on being relatable to build an army of subscribers. If anything, he’s the embodiment of everything unattainable but highly desired in this capitalist hell. As much a dick as he appears in his videos, Bobby is surprisingly self aware — he notes that he isn’t “disadvantaged in any way,” and clarifies that he is in fact “a really down to earth guy.”

At times, Bobby does seem like he gets how most people actually live. In a recent Instagram story, he complained about paying $43 for cucumber Juul pods. During the FaceTime call, he notably opted for traditional (wired!) earbuds over the current meme marker of wealth, Airpods.

“I don’t necessarily wake up and drink champagne or something,” Bobby laughed. “I feel like a lot of people think that from that video, I’m living this ridiculously lavish lifestyle but I’m actually quite a simple boy.”

But then again, it’s hard to believe that when he captions his Instagram photos with “Money is the drug and I’m a junkie.” He even uploaded a video that’s a cross between a flex and a manifesto called “RICH KID’S rule book to WEALTH,” instructing his followers to avoid getting scammed by “keeping your friend circle tight and small.”

“When there’s someone like me, who has everything and everything appears to be perfect, it’s prime,” he responded when questioned about being the subject of scathing reaction videos. “It’s easy to hate on me because you can.”

It really is too easy to hate on him, because he seems so stuck in his own world. Search “billionaire’s son” on YouTube, and you’re sure to find titles with his name adjacent to spoiled, arrogant, and cringe.

“It sounds so weird to brag about something your dad did,” YouTuber Danny Gonzalez joked in a reaction video. “My dad started bringing really pretty girls around. My dad has a really good work ethic. And I was also there.”

It’s clear that Bobby idolizes his father, School of Audio Engineering (SAE) founder Tom Misner. The institute has private, for-profit college campuses worldwide and was sold in 2010. He talks about the elder Misner reverently in his vlogs, and his IMDb bio says he’s “learnt the most important aspects of life from his father, and that is to follow your dreams and work hard at attaining them.”

His father still bankrolls Bobby’s lifestyle, to an extent. Bobby receives “an allowance” from his old man, but “it’s nowhere what people think.” He noted that he now makes more money than what his father gives him.

“My dad knows how to do it, right,” Bobby said during the call, explaining his channel’s goal. “I’m not gotta sit here and tell people, ‘I know how to make you millions.’ I don’t know. I’ll just tell you certain philosophies and stuff that I go by, but what I can tell people that when you’re here, living this life, there are things that I know.”

He doesn’t believe that other YouTubers put in the same amount of effort into making a video that he does. In a subtle dig to the Vlog Squad’s style of quick cuts and daily video diaries, Bobby said other vloggers will “just use iMovie and put together some stuff from a day and be like, ‘This is it,” while his videos involve higher production quality.

“Longevity is much more important to me than clout,” Bobby said. “Each video I put out, I want to watch it myself.”

Even if it means being YouTube’s most arrogant influencer — maybe even usurping the Paul brothers from their asshole throne — Bobby is committed to his channel. While other YouTubers strive to be personable, Bobby does the opposite, basking in surreal luxury. He derides the more “authentic” social media stars who FaceTune their photos, perfect themselves with makeup, and then “tell you to be secure in yourself.”

“I’m quite narcissistic,” Bobby concludes at the end of our call. He says this with like it’s a fact of life instead of a brag. “I like myself. I like the life I live and I’ll tell you straight up in my videos. As long as you’re honest about that, your viewers — even if they don’t like you — will feel like you’re telling the truth and they’ll follow your story.”

]]>https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/billionaires-son-bobby-misner-knows-youtube-doesnt-like-him/feed/0Apple is teaming up with Goldman Sachs to launch a credit card later this yearhttps://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/apple-is-teaming-up-with-goldman-sachs-to-launch-a-credit-card-later-this-year/
https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/apple-is-teaming-up-with-goldman-sachs-to-launch-a-credit-card-later-this-year/#respondThu, 21 Feb 2019 16:25:00 +0000https://futulogy.com/2019/02/21/apple-is-teaming-up-with-goldman-sachs-to-launch-a-credit-card-later-this-year/Apple and Goldman Sachs are teaming up to launch a credit card later this year that will heavily integrate with the iPhone.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple and Goldman Sachs are joining up to launch a new credit card that will be heavily integrated with the iPhone.

Using Apple Wallet, cardholders will be able to set spending goals, track rewards on purchases, and manage their account balances. Customers will also reportedly earn 2 percent cash back on most of their purchases with potentially higher bonuses on Apple’s products and services.

Apple employees will be the first to test out the card when its issued in a few weeks, according to the report. The joint credit card with Goldman Sachs will use Mastercard’s payment network.

The credit card move is a big step for both companies.

Apple has been working on moving its sales focus from its hardware to its service-based products. Last year, the iPhone maker announced it would no longer report how many product units it sold in its quarterly earnings updates. Apple made the case that sales of these devices no longer painted an accurate picture of how the company is doing. Being that so many consumers already own Apple’s smartphones and tablets, the tech behemoth argued that number of paid subscriptions to its services is much more accurate portrayal of the company’s success.

With its own credit card, Apple is hoping to double-dip on the fees it already collects from the cut it takes on its app and multimedia sales. The company also takes a cut from credit card transactions made through Apple Pay, so Apple is already quite familiar with how much revenue it can generate from credit card.

For Goldman Sachs, this would actually be the global investment banking giant’s very first credit card. Goldman Sachs is fairly new to consumer-facing banking. The company launched Marcus, its online consumer bank service in 2016.

Currently, Apple partners with Barclay’s to issue a Barclaycard Visa with Apple Rewards. The company heavily promotes the card on its Apple Store as the preferred method to help finance your Apple purchases. It’s currently unknown if or how the Goldman Sachs partnership will affect the Barclaycard.

An Apple branded credit card makes sense for a company trying to promote its Apple Pay service as well as grow it fee-based revenue. However, its decision to partner with Goldmach Sachs on a consumer-facing product is an interesting one. The investment bank has become synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis for the role it played in misleading investors. The bank has also been criticized for the billions of dollars in bailout money it received. Goldman Sachs has been pushing its Marcus consumer banking product as part of a rebrand.

Both Apple and Goldman Sachs are banking on this credit card being a success. Time will tell if the card pays off.

YouTube rabbit holes are an inescapable reality of the internet. You go to the site with one clip in mind and those damn thumbnails pique your interest enough to make you click on another video, and another, and another.

There is one benefit to the never-ending cycle of YouTube videos: You only need to watch one clip on historic painting conservation to find one of the most oddly satisfying YouTube community out there.

The restoration community is a corner of YouTube boasting thousands of subscribers and millions of views. For the most part, it breaks down into four major subdivisions: shoes, swords and knifes, small machinery, and toy restoration. Surprisingly, though, while all of these items, most of the content creators all had similar things to say.

One channel, my mechanics, is dedicated to the restoration of antique tools and small machines. The channel boasts over 352,000 subscribers and the most popular video has over 10.5 million views.

The man behind my mechanics said that while a lot of his viewers were mechanics themselves, a decent amount of his audience are watching his videos purely because a YouTube wormhole brought them there.

So why do people love restoration videos so much?Eric, who runs Hand Tool Rescue, a tool restoration page with 500,000 subscribers, puts it concisely.

“For some reason, modern society has decided that clean things are better than dirty, so everyone wants to see something make that transition. It’s basically the same reason people like shows about home renovations.”

But it’s not all about cleaning up dirty things. Toy Polloi, who runs a toy conservation channel, said that a lot of comments noted that it was his narration that made the videos so relaxing. He added that they enjoy the tone of his voice, “and I guess because I am British, the Americans love that.”

Black Beard Projects, who comes from the knife and tool restoration community, touched on another common theme from across the subsections. Nearly all of the YouTube restorers got into it for the same reason: it’s cheaper to restore old things than buy new ones.

He got into restoration long before he started making videos because buying and fixing old tools was an economical way to start creating things on a budget.

John Manalo, a prominent shoe restorer on YouTube with 141,000 subscribers, had similar comments in regards to viewers watching for a source of relaxation. However, Manalo uses his YouTube videos as promotion for his shoe restoration business. He estimates that around 70 percent of his business now comes from people who have viewed his videos.

“I do tutorials for people to know that I know what I am doing. This makes them more comfortable sending in their expensive shoes to a complete stranger by mail,” he said.

Most of Manalo’s viewers are from the sneaker community, and his highest watched videos are of the most expensive sneakers he’s restored.

Eric from Hand Tool Rescue also does restorations as a side business. “I would buy rusty and dirty antique/vintage tools, clean them up or restore them, and sell them for a higher price. It was a fun little hobby.”

Similarly, Toy Polloi mentioned that when he started restoring toys he preferred to buy the cheaper and more beat up selections. Not only were they less expensive, but he also found it far more satisfying to figure out how toys worked and fix them himself.

But not all people believe in the restoration process. Some of the YouTubers claimed backlash from some of the more hardcore antiquaries.

“I see some people comment on my videos telling that I ruined an antique, destroying its history and its value as an antique,” my mechanics said. This sentiment was echoed by Toy Polloi, who has been kicked out of some forums by particularly aggressive Star Wars fans, who say that he is destroying the toys he refurbishes.

Both my mechanics and Toy Polloi both said that the negative comments didn’t bother them too much. Many of the restorers view themselves as providing entertainment rather than tutorials. Their purpose isn’t historic conservation; their intention is to make old pieces new and useful again. They restore for use, not historic integrity.

One of the best things about this community is that although the individual items these YouTubers are restoring are completely different, they all have a lot in common.

Eric, admittedly biased towards tool restoration, said this of the niche community: “Other YouTube videos that restore way less interesting things (in my opinion) still seem to get a lot of traction, so I do not think it’s the specific subject in the video, but more the process.”

Whether you’re an enthusiast for the individual items, or just enjoy a relaxing transformation videos, restoration YouTube is a great way to spend some time.